Roland Garros with Arantxa!

The Roland Garros doubles draw was announced today. The big surprise is that Martina's doubles partner this fortnight will be Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario! At #166, Arantxa's ranking was too low to meet the field cutoff so the team was given a wildcard.

Arantxa retired from tournament play after the 2002 season but she returned last year to play few events to prepare for the Athens Olympics. She won Palermo, made the finals in Bali and the quarterfinals in Berlin, so it was not a bad year for Arantxa. This year's Roland Garros though will be her first event of the year so I'm not quite sure what to expect from our team. They take on the claycourt specialists, Lourdes Dominguez Lino & Nuria Llagostera Vives in their opening match. For the complete draw, click here.

And a quick note to all fans... Martina confirmed on the message boards last week that she will not be playing in Eastbourne next month. She has decided instead to compete in the Ordina Open in 's-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands instead.

Laureus World Sports Awards

Martina was in Lisbon yesterday for the Laureus World Sports Awards. She presented the award for World Sportsman of the Year to none other than Roger Federer. For a photo of Martina on the red carpet, click here. Also check out the Getty Images & Rex Features sites for additional photos. And for a short video clip, click here for the BBC Sport website - the video link is in the top-right corner.

Disappointment in Rome...

Unfortunately, Martina did not have a good tournament in Rome. Francesca & she were upset in their opening match by Maria Elena Camerin & Tathiana Garbin 6-4 6-2. Martina's next event is Roland Garros in Paris in one week's time.

Finally... Rome!

Martina is back after a long break... has it really only been three weeks since her last event? Martina will team up with Francesca Schiavone next week for the Telecom Italia Masters in Rome. They are the #7 seeds and have a difficult first match ahead of them against the all-Italian pair of Maria Elena Camerin and Tathiana Garbin. For the complete draw, courtesy of the tournament website, click here.

2005 WTT schedule

The World TeamTennis schedule is finally out. Martina has added an extra sixth stop to her season this year which looks like this:

July 6 (Wednesday): Wilmington, Delaware

July 7 (Thursday): Cambridge, Massachusetts

July 9 (Saturday): Houston, Texas

July 19 (Tuesday): Mamaroneck, New York

July 20 (Wednesday): Avon, Connecticut

July 21 (Thursday): Cambridge, Massachusetts

The first stop in Boston on July 7 will also feature Martina Hingis while the Houston tie will include Tommy Hass on the opposing team. You can check out the complete season schedule on the WTT website here. The official Boston Lobsters website is here.

Disappointment in Charleston

2005 has undoubtedly been the worst year of Martina's comeback so far, filled with disappointment and misfortune, and Charleston brought more of the same. Martina & Anna-Lena were beaten in their opening match by the Czech pairing of Iveta Benesova & Kveta Peschke 7-5 5-7 7-6. This was a match our team should have won - they were up 4-2 40-15 and serving in the final set but somehow found a way to let their opponents back in. Up 5-4, they had a match point on Benesova's serve and then two more match points at 6-5 on Peschke's serve but each time failed to capitalize. They lost the final set tie-break 7-5.

As expected, there was no media coverage of Martina at the Family Circle Cup last week. For a few photos from the tournament website, click on the following links: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three.

Right now, I have no idea where Martina will be playing next. She might play Berlin in two weeks' time but her next confirmed event is Rome, the week after.

Martina in Charleston

Martina is back in Charleston for the fourth straight year with her fourth different partner! This week she is back with Anna-Lena Groenefeld and they are the #4 seeds. They have received a first round bye. Let's hope the ladies will have better luck this week - their previous pairing in Hyderabad ended in the most unfortunate of circumstances as you are all well aware. For the complete doubles draw, courtesy of the tournament website, click here.

Martina in the Bay Area

Martina will be in Mill Valley, California this fall, October 14-16, for the Women's Tennis Classic, a three-day fund-raiser to support the Marin Breast Cancer Council and Youth Tennis Advantage. She will be joined by Tracy Austin, Wayne Ferreira & Rick Leach. I'm not exactly sure why the thing is called the Women's Tennis Classic when the only featured match will be a mixed doubles match involving Martina & Rick against Tracy & Wayne, but whatever. You can read the complete article from the 'Marin Independent Journal' here.

What I'm really confused about though is that this event takes place right in the middle of the European indoor season. Does this mean Martina is planning to bypass the Fall indoor events in Europe like she did last year? Or is it just that week which is the week of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow? - not exactly Martina's favorite event. I guess we will have to wait and see. We hopefully should have something definite by September.

2005 WTT season

For those of you hoping to catch Martina at her World TeamTennis stops this summer, here's the scoop. Martina will be making 5 appearances this year for the Boston Lobsters - twice in Boston and once each in Houston, Hartford, Conn. & Wilmington, Del. The exact dates will be announced later this month and I will let you know as soon (relatively speaking) as I hear of it.

Amelia Island roundup

I decide not to update the page for a week and Martina has her best showing of the year - should I make this a habit? Ha ha. Anyways, Martina & Alicia made it to the semifinals at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida last week. They were promoted to the #5 seed position following the withdrawal of the top seeded team of Nadia Petrova & Meghann Shaughnessy. In their opening match, they struggled to a 6-4 3-6 6-0 victory over a pair of qualifiers, Lourdes Dominguez Lino & Evgenia Linetskaya. In the quarterfinals, they found themselves down 3-6 4-5 0-40, down three match points to Eleni Daniilidou & Carly Gullickson, yet managed to stage a remarkable recovery, eventually prevailing 3-6 7-5 6-2. In the semifinals, however, their Cinderella run came to an end with a 6-3 3-6 7-5 defeat to Kveta Peschke & Patty Schnyder. They had been up 4-2 in the final set and wasted 6 additional break points. But all in all, it was a good week, Martina's first semifinal of the year.

For photos from last week, click on the following links: Photo One, Photo Two, Photo Three, Photo Four. The last two photos show Martina signing autographs at the Tennis Against Breast Cancer booth and the Nassau County Humane Society booth on the tournament premises. There was not much in the way of print media coverage, save for a few blurbs from the Florida Times-Union: Article One, Article Two, Article Three.

Martina nexts heads out to Charleston, South Carolina for the Family Circle Cup where she will be playing with Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

Amelia Island with Alicia

The claycourt season begins this week at the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida. Martina will be playing with Alicia Molik and they have drawn Liezel Huber & Mashona Washington in their opening match. Let's hope this week will be a good week for our team. For the complete doubles draw, click here.

Martina returns to Boston

"It's great to be back in Boston."

So says Martina, who will be back playing World TeamTennis this summer as a member of the Boston Lobsters. Martina last played for the Lobsters in 1978 and this time she will be joined on the team by James Blake, Scott Draper, Daja Bedanova, Kristen Schlukebir & Thomas Blake. For a look at the other players on the other teams, visit the WTT website here.

2005 nightmare continues

The year so far is slowly turning into the year from hell. Martina has now lost more tour doubles matches than she has won. Today, Martina & Francesca were beaten 6-4 3-6 6-2 by Anabel Medina Garrigues and Dinara Safina in their opeening match in Miami. I must say, I was surprised at how well Martina & Francesca were able to play the more-established team of Medina Garrigues and Safina. Nevertheless, the first round loss will likely cost Martina dearly in the rankings as her semifinal points from last year come off.

Martina's next tournament is expected to be the Bausch & Lomb Championships in Amelia Island, Florida which should begin in a week's time.

Martina signs with Olivia

A new endorsement deal for Martina. She has been signed by Olivia - a travel & lifestyle company that caters mainly to lesbians. As part of the deal, Martina will wear the Olivia logo on her shirt sleeves and shorts during matches, appear in print advertising, show up at company events and be a guest on some of the company's cruises and other trips. For the press release from the Olivia website, click here. And here are two articles: The New York Times, Associated Press, The Miami Herald. For a few photos from the press conference in Miami, check out the Getty Images website (type "Navratilova" in the search box).

Miami draw, Indian Wells disaster...

Sorry guys, I should not have waited this long to update the blog but the Indian Wells result was just too depressing for words. As most of you know by now, Martina & Sveta were shocked in their opening match, going down 6-2 6-2 to the unseeded first-time pairing of Emmanuelle Gagliardi and Jelena Jankovic. Unfortunately there was zero media coverage of Martina's appearance in Indian Wells so we have no idea if her injury was still bothering her or if they just ran into a team playing the match of their lives.

Our prospects don't seem too bright for the Nasdaq-100 Open in Miami either, which starts this week. Martina is playing with Francesca Schiavone of Italy and they take on the established team of Anabel Medina Garrigues & Dinara Safina in their opening match. I really don't see our team getting past this first hurdle. At this point, I have no idea what's happening with the partnership with Daniela. They were supposed to play here but from the looks of things, I guess the partnership has been called off. Hopefully, there will be some confirmation available soon. For the complete Miami doubles draw, click here.

First Round

Martina & Sveta are scheduled to play their opening match tomorrow in Indian Wells. They take on Emmanuelle Gagliardi & Jelena Jankovic in the fourth scheduled match on Stadium 3. Good luck, ladies!

Indian Wells surprise!

Well actually, there were two surprises today. The first was seeing Martina's name in the Pacific Life Open doubles draw. Obviously this means the back is doing better and she feels fit enough to compete this week. The second surprise what seeing Sveta Kuznetsova's name beside her in the draw - our beloved team from 2003 is back! If only temporarily, but still... we'll take it any way it comes, right? Let's hope some of that 2003 magic is still working. Our team has a difficult first round proposition in the form of the always dangerous Emmanuelle Gagliardi and Jelena Jankovic. For the complete draw, click here (see Page 3). All the best, ladies!

Liverpool update

It is now confirmed that Martina will be playing singles at the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament this June. She will play a match against former British #1, Sam Smith in addition to the mixed doubles. The Liverpool Echo also quoted Martina in yesterday's edition, commenting on her upcoming appearance:

"It is great to be coming to Liverpool for the first time. I've heard about the relaxed atmosphere of the event and how friendly the people are."

Off to California

Martina left for California this weekend. She is still unsure if she will recover in time to play in Indian Wells but she has business to attend to so the trip was on her schedule anyway. For more, click here for an article from Martina's hometown newspaper, the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

Meanwhile, Martina has committed to the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament in Calderstones Park, Liverpool this June. This is an exhibition tournament but unfortunately, that is about all I know about it at the moment. For the official press release from the tournament website, click here.

And finally, the latest Harris poll of America's favorite sports stars is out. Martina has made the list at #8, I don't remember the last time she was ranked in the top 10. For the press release, click here.

No Dubai

As most of you will have already heard by now, Martina was forced to withdraw from the Dubai Duty Free Championships this week due to a back injury. Here is what she had to say about that on the message board:

Well, I got some bad news, guys. I will not be playing Dubai. Thursday morning when I bent over to move some stuff in the back seat of my car, when I straightened up, my lower back locked up on me. Totally unexpected, though it has happened before - last time about 6 years ago... so I have been in bed since, getting accupuncture treatments and will now try to play Indian Wells instead, if I get well enough, needless to say.

Martina was kind enough to update us again yesterday with the good news that she was doing much better:

As you can see, I have too much time on my hands now as I am still on my back, but feeling better today, I know i will be ready for Iindian Wells. The accupuncture really helped, highly recommend it for all kinds of problems.

It is so nice of Martina to keep in touch with us during this stressful time. We wish her a speedy recovery and cannot wait for Indian Wells!